Bryony

COLOR me WOWED !!! Cannot say enough how much I love this. Gorgeous grid with multiple grid-spanning entries on a Tuesday with the vowel restriction !!!!! Lovely work.

Add me to the crowd of those displeased with the clue referencing generative AI. I thought we were starting to realise that as cool and useful AI is, it doesn’t create unique and interesting art. Do the robots really need to do everything? Why are we even obliquely supporting AI doing the sorts of things we humans actually enjoy, taking away at the very least recognition for human artists? Ugh. Otherwise, a fun, breezy puzzle.

Nice Tuesday, though I think crossing TAIGA with TAJIK was a bit cruel.

Ooft, this was a bit of a miss for me. I really liked the theme going all the way through, and the “word ladder” was fun, but clueing felt pretty crunchy to me (and not in the way Thursday-Saturday does), and some of the fill felt very rough. LOUSESUP? TRITEST? Multiple proper noun crosses ANNE/LEE, ROXIE/LEN (To be fair, they’re pretty easy ones to guess)? SE corner almost lost me, where I originally had naH and None instead of MEH and NADA, plus I’d never heard of OLIN…. Though I feel like this particular complaint is less problem with the crossword and more with me not being on the same wavelength as the constructor today ! This one just didn’t really hit for me, but that’s ok, there’s plenty others.

Oooft. Too tough for me today, but that’s not me saying this puzzle was the PITS - I’m just NO GREAT SHAKER yet !! Enjoyed the bits I did manage, and after all, ITS NOT A RACE - the only people to compete with are the various versions of me. GOOD ENOUGH for this ONE.

Not too much time ELAPSEd while I did this puzzle - I was able to DRIFT between clues, EMENDing at times, and once the DUST settled, almost every CELL was correct. … though I did share the OPENENDEd problem with many people, having convinced myself that SdS was a weird abbreviation for students, and assumed commencement was some American start-of-school year thing, not realising that it’s almost the complete opposite !! Ah well, overall, great puzzle. LETS have more from this constructor !!

AGH !!! I was so *so* close to solving my first *ever* Saturday without any lookups….. but after too long stuck at A??ANA(p?c?)LANACANAL, I searched for Minorca. Then got very confused by finding all results for MEnorca, wondering if there was somehow a typo and so came here, and found my answer in the tricky clues section. So close, yet so far. I am also very confused by the choice of Min vs Men - it seems that here Men is much more common, but I wonder why it’s different around the world even in the same language ! Regardless, I *loved* this one. What a great ARRAY of clues. Of particular NOTE - I got CHRISTMASSPIRIT on my first pass, with CARETOELABORATE and SATELLITEDISHES following not long after thanks to some good crosses. What CAN I say? Clearly I was TUNED IN to the constructors mind. LEMME have more !!

Ok ! Being not from the US, I didn’t get the theme at all, but I still enjoyed it - I thought it was going to be some sort of geographical thing with OZARKS and GULFOFMEXICO, so the RUSSETPOTATO confused me for a while, but hey ho, I got the happy music, and in record time !

As an Australian, “peg” is pretty standard vernacular for “throw”, I hadn’t realised it wasn’t in the US too! 😅 found this one very tricky, despite being a poetry lover (and enjoying Robert frost well enough) I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what poem it could be - praise be the wordplay column!

This took me longer than usual, which I have CHALKEDUP to a GRO-O-OSS cold that I am struggling to DEPOSE, and is definitely not a slight on this delightful Monday puzzle. Having said that, I’ve never heard of OREOPIE before, and I’m a little scared now of the SICKO who came up with it. (only slightly exaggerating….)

I really need to learn that sometimes, just putting something down can really open up an area. I started at NE for what felt like years before putting in “Brush”….. which made me realise EBB, and then BOSSY, which make me realise Brush wasn’t correct at all, etc etc !! I really loved the long clues, I couldn’t get the EB White at first but SHAKEN NOT STIRRED was a gorgeous one to get straight away. Absolutely loved this puzzle, even if I didn’t know it all I felt like I could get it from guesses and crosses. And, as an app solver, I got the bonus of getting a little martini glass. Adorable, 10/10 for both word and visual construction !!

Give this a solid meh. I found the Roman numerals a bit too forced, I think I would have preferred if it was I, then II, then III, then IV, rather than the slightly more random mix we got. Though, I suppose it was I, II, IV, VIII, so doubling each time…… eh. There’s plenty more out there, and hopefully I can file a lot of the more obscure (to me) Americana for future reference !

Despite being an avid amateur musician, I didn’t get the theme until coming here - but it didn’t stop me from solving, as I could make a solid guess on the fill from crosses. A cute puzzle !

I was so concerned by the many Gs appearing in 47D, but then the Ps appeared and it fell into place ! Fun theme, I found the fill a bit tough in the central N and SE corners, so I needed some lookups, so “not a great Wednesday” for me, but enjoyable nonetheless!

Really lovely puzzle, and almost no lookups !!!! RASSLER got me, I had to check the comments for that one - I am still not sure what SRO is what it has to do with sellouts - but all the other tricky clues came to me with a bit of thought. Just one of those days where you’re in sync with the constructor for the most part.

A cute puzzle !! I got stuck on ONEEYEDnicKS and couldn’t for the life of me figure out where I was wrong. Love the idea, though, and still enjoyed myself even if I had to come here to be set right !!!

Cute puzzle, I really struggled but I still enjoyed my struggling !! Unrelated to that, and since this puzzle is all about how things sound, I want to briefly ask about the word “frosh”. I’ve never heard it said, only ever seen it in the NYT crossword, and I cannot imagine it sounding anything but incredibly naff and insincere. Is it actually said, Americans/Canadians??

felt like an absolute GENIUS when I got the central, SE and SW corners……. And then couldn’t make any headway with NE/NW. Ah well, wordplay saved me, and now I know a new definition for Areola !

One of those themes that, to me, feels a bit too contrived. Perhaps if BILLIEJEANS was different, so the theme clues were all slight perversions of common turns of phrase I would prefer it, but as is, it didn’t quite hit the spot for me.

Cannot say enough how much I loved this puzzle - I think it’s the perfect entry level rebus, enough near-gimmes that require the ANT that you can pretty quickly twig that something is up, and a well written revealer. Love it !

Except for EmDASH, lovely puzzle - I spent way too long trying to figure out what WEmTAPE could possibly mean, swapping out the W in WELT …. The TAPE with “glue” in the clue made me think it was something like un-TAPE, I am annoyed at how long it took me to realise. I’m sure in a bit once I’ve had the sting wear off I’ll feel less affronted by the ENDASH !!!

not me trying to figure out what BEST COME DYAL BUM is……………. Trickier than a usual Monday but I think I just wasn’t clicking with it :’)